I'm integrating LMCe with my new demo house and I have all kinds of devices that are not lights and don't have on or off state - blinds, drapes for instance.

Currently one can do simple (but I think still dirty) workaround to add light device (by default are all light devices dimmable), then change its icon to blind and then use it. But the main problem in such setup is that user doesn't have any visual information about device's current state.

Particularly for blinds and drapes (and I think also for dimmable lights) it would be nice to add proper support and display current state on Floorplans if user desires so. For blinds or drapes, we could even have different icons (in 10% steps) so user can get visual feedback.

Anyone looking in this direction ? This enhancement is I guess linked to several changes in major plugins. I think it would be efficient to gather more opinions and do it in group effort manner ?

If we dig into plugins then I guess it would be also wise to consider another more major change - to introduce possibility to user, that with simple tick, device will show it's current state in text (whatever it is) on floorplans and also introduce event like "state changed" that would inform plugins that device's state has changed and needs to be updated on floorplans - if user desired such behaviour for this device. Any opinion on this idea ? It would ease addition of all kinds of custom devices to LMCE...

But since these changes are not so trivial, I'd love to hear opinion from LMCE maintainers as well.... Please take part in this discussion...

One of the issues I noticed as well with the current Z-wave lighting system is that device state changes made outside of LMCE do not feed back to LMCE. So if I turn a light off via LMCE and then press a button on a switch to turn it on, LMCE would still think it's off and show it as such on the floorplan. I've seen other Z-wave software controllers use polling. While there are some new devices that can support state change notification, polling is the simplest solution, I believe. I plan to implement that functionality with the Insteon driver I'm writing.

One of the issues I noticed as well with the current Z-wave lighting system is that device state changes made outside of LMCE do not feed back to LMCE. So if I turn a light off via LMCE and then press a button on a switch to turn it on, LMCE would still think it's off and show it as such on the floorplan. I've seen other Z-wave software controllers use polling. While there are some new devices that can support state change notification, polling is the simplest solution, I believe. I plan to implement that functionality with the Insteon driver I'm writing.

Hi,

I worked around that problem. Since I wrote driver by myself for my home automation system (Cybrotech.uk), I could afford that. So I monitor automation level (poll 20 times per second) and if anything changes, then I send proper event to DCERouter so floorplan devices are properly updated...

The problem is that light is like switch device and not real device (see no good point for that other than being easier to implement), so it will go into desired state in few seconds regardless of true state of device. But if you send proper events it will also act accordingly...

I'd also vote for proper implementation of lights (where low level should report curren state back) instead of switches..

Any other opinions ?

I'm also curious how to contribute in current state of LMCE. Is there SVN? Are there any maintainers to work with and approve changes ?

I've been digging around my insteon PLM.. the PLM supports a "monitor" mode... as long as the device is in it's link database, the PLM will send an event for each message it "sees".

PeteK, I don't have my PLC yet, so I can't compare them... but it sounds like that is what is needed... It will also "relay" any message if a "receiver"'s link is in the database..

Plug and play could potentially be implemented here.. we can read each device's database... add all the links to the PLM's database, then move on to the next record in the PLM. I'll look to see if I can figure out what each device is..(should be able to, the DevCat and DevID fields are there to read, just haven't tried it yet)

HTH

Dan

P.S. I'd bet it's also possible to write a SALad app for the PLC's to accomplish the same functionality...

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